IT CAN create a buzz around an up-and-coming rock band, and is great for reuniting with friends from college. But can it help investigate the causes and treatment of serious diseases? That's the question surrounding attempts to use online social networking to recruit volunteers for clinical research.
The MySpace mindset is already meeting medical science on the website PatientsLikeMe. For the past two years it has enabled people with the degenerative neurological disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to share information about symptoms and treatments. PatientsLikeMe has also expanded to build communities of people with other conditions, and has launched a number of projects analysing clinical information provided by the site's users.
Now online social networking is moving into genetics research. In a pilot project, personal genomics firm 23andMe, based in Mountain View, California, is building a site for people with Parkinson's disease. Using a grant from ..more
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